Ahsan Hanif – Quran Tafseer – Page 105 – Quran The Light Of Guidance
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AI: Transcript ©
Welcome to another episode of our tafsir page
by page and Insha'Allah
today we are on page 105 of the
Quran, which is in the 6th juz towards
the very end now of Surah Nisa.
In the previous episode, we mentioned the verses
that which Allah
highlighted to us and emphasized to us the
role of the messengers and the duties and
responsibilities
and tasks that they are given and that
is essentially
that they should give glad tidings to those
people who believe in them and follow the
path of Allah and they give warnings of
punishment to those who disbelieve and turn away
from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And Allah did
mention
those people who turn away from Allah,
disbelieve in Allah, bar others
from the path of Allah Azzawajal,
oppress those who believe and do harm to
them and how Allah Azzawajal will not allow
them to follow because as a result of
their actions and their belief, they will not
find a path other than the path that
leads to the hellfire.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the verse that
we begin with today which is verse 171,
He says,
Allah Azzawajal says addressing the people of the
scripture or people of the book,
Do not go to excess in your religion,
and do not say anything about Allah except
the truth.
The Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, was nothing
more than a messenger of Allah.
His word directed to Mary a spirit from
him. So believe in Allah and his messengers
and do not speak of a trinity.
Stop this. That is better for you. For
indeed Allah is
the only one God, is the only one
worthy of worship.
He is far above having a son.
Everything in the heavens and earth belongs to
him and he is the best one to
trust.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this verse begins
by giving us a general guide, a general
principle.
Even though it is addressed to the people
of the book and the people of the
scripture which are the Jews and the Christians,
this is a general principle that applies to
everyone including to us as Muslims.
Allah
gives us a general principle in which he
forbids us from 2 things and commands us
with one
thing. Allah forbids us from 2 things. The
first of them is that we don't go
to extremes and excesses in our religion
and that shows that even a person when
it comes to worship,
religiosity,
adhering to what they think is the religion
can go to excess. They can go to
extremes.
So it's not just the disbelievers
or
those people who don't believe in a God
or don't accept a religion that can go
to extremes in their actions and beliefs. People
of religion can also go to excess
and extremes in their belief as well. As
we know for example from that which the
people did such as the Christians and the
Jews and others that they went to extremes
in the way that they held up some
of the prophets of Allah such as Risa
and his mother Mariam
and that is what Allah didn't speak about
in more detail in this verse, verse 171
of Surah Al Nisa. But the principle is
general. Don't go to extremes in all religions.
Even for us as Muslims, we have to
be careful on this point
because amongst the Muslims there are those who
will go to extremes in issues of belief
or in the status that they afford to
certain people for example. So there are amongst
the Muslims those who believe and give to
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam a status above
that which Allah gave to him. Him. He
is the Messenger of Allah and the best
of creation and the most beloved of Allah's
creation to him. But he doesn't have the
powers of divinity. He is not a God
besides Allah
but amongst the Muslims there are those who
call upon the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and
make dua to him. And think that he
can provide them with children, that he can
cure them when they are sick, that he
can help them with their wealth and their
financial problems and they call out to him
the way that they should call out to
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And that is something
which you find amongst the Muslims. And then
there are amongst the Muslims those who have
given
status to the Awliya of Allah Those
people of righteousness and piety and knowledge above
that which Allah gave to them. They are
people of knowledge and they are people
of special status because of their closeness to
Allah
but again they are not Gods, they don't
know the unseen, they don't control the affairs
of the heavens and the earth, they don't
grant you children or whatever else it may
be, and so those people take them to
extremes, whether it's from amongst the companions as
some people did with the likes of Ali
and his sons Al Hassan al Hussain radiAllahu
anhumah and Fatima radiAllahu anha or whether it's
what people did with certain scholars of Islam
and certain Uliya that they called saints
and they raised them above their station
and they essentially
used
them for benefit and toward harm and for
children and for wealth and for a cure
of sickness and so on and so forth.
And that is something where people can go
to extremes in religion.
And so this is something which a person
has to be mindful of in terms of
belief but also then in terms of worship
and action because the person can go to
extremes in terms of the way that they
worship Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And that is
why the prophet told us salallahu alaihi wa
sallam for example,
the person who for example fasts as in
the hadith of Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al
Asquaddhiallahu
anhu that if you want to fast and
you want to fast often, you can't fast
every day of the year. That's not something
which is allowed that's going to extreme and
an act of worship. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, the best of is the fasting of
Dawood alaihi wasallam. He would fast today and
he would miss a day. And likewise the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
prohibited people from spending the whole night in
prayer without resting as a norm. Yes, there
are exceptions to that rule where you are
going to fast multiple days such as in
Ramadan or the 6 days of Shawwal or
the first days of Dhruhijjah. There are exceptions
when you will spend the whole night awake
in prayer like the last 10 nights of
Ramadan and certain days of worship and nights
of worship. Those are the exceptions to the
rule but does that become your norm throughout
the whole year? No. The prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam forbade people from doing this because
a person can go to extremes in this
regard, to excesses in the religion of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So that is the first
thing that Allah tells us to stay away
from and be aware of, not to go
to extremes in affairs of our religion. And
the second thing is not to speak about
Allah
without knowledge,
not to ascribe lies to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Don't speak about Allah with things that
you don't know of, Like those people who
associated partners with Allah. They said that Allah
has a son, they said that Allah has
partners that is speaking about that which they
don't know, that is speaking about Allah without
knowledge. How do you know that Allah has
a son? If Allah himself is saying I
don't have a son, then what do you
have to say that someone has a son?
Like me and you, if I was to
say that you have a son and you
say no, I don't have a son, I'm
not married,
who am I to say that you have
a son unless I have proof to the
contrary?
And so therefore Allah
is saying that these people are speaking about
Allah without knowledge
and often the cause of shirk and innovation
in the religion is as a result of
people speaking about Allah without knowledge and his
religion without knowledge and that is why it
is something which is a grave affair
because all of shirk essentially emanates
from that one thing and that is speaking
about Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala and his religion without
knowledge. So those are the 2 things that
Allah forbids us from in this principle. Don't
go to extremes in your religion, don't speak
about Allah without knowledge. And what should you
do then? Walataqoo
wa a'laahi illaalhaqq,
but only speak the truth.
Speak the truth what Allah said, what Allah
wants, what Allah
revealed, that is the truth and that is
what you should be upon in terms of
your religion.
After establishing this general principle, Allah now applies
it to the scenario or to the context
that these verses are mentioned in and that
is for the people of the scripture.
And so Allah ajazul applies it now to
Isa alaihis salam that the question said was
the son of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, they
elevated a man who was a prophet above
his station,
so essentially they went to extremes in their
religion
and spoke about Allah without knowledge and concealed
the truth.
'Indeed,
the Messiah, Risa the son of Maruyam
was nothing more than the Messenger of Allah.
And the Messenger of Allah is a lofty
station, it is a great station, but that
is all the station that he had. He
doesn't go above this to the station of
being a God besides Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
This is the rarity of Risa Alaihi Salat
wa Salam.
And he is and he was the word
that he directed to meaning that he said
be and he was. That Allah decreed
the birth of 'Isa a'rihi Salam because Maryam
wasn't married, no man touched her and Allah
simply said be he directed that word and
he was and
a spirit from him that Jibreel alaihi salam
came and he blew into Maryam Alayhi Salaam
that essentially made her pregnant and from that
pregnancy would be the birth of the Messenger
of Allah 'Isa Alaihi Salatu Wasallam.
This is the reality of 'Isa Alaihi Salaam
without going to extremes,
without ascribing lies to Allah, without speaking about
Allah, without knowledge.
So Allah says: So believe in Allah and
all of his prophets and messengers.
Believe in Risa as the messenger of Allah,
believe in Musa as the messenger of Allah,
believe in Mariam as the righteous lady, believe
in them in the way that Allah has
decreed.
And don't say that they are the trinity,
don't say that they are 3 Gods, that
it is Allah
and Risa and the Holy Spirit, or that
it is Allah and Risa and Mariam,
and don't elevate him to the status that
Allah didn't give to them.
Allah says stop this for that is better
for you, better for you in terms of
this life, better for you when you stand
before Allah
azzawajal.
For indeed Allah
is the one God alone worthy of worship.
Allah alone is worthy of worship, there is
no God besides him, he has no partners,
he takes no child, he takes no spouse,
he is subhanahu wa ta'ala alone and unique
Jallaf i'ula in a manner which befits his
Majesty.
Your Lord Allah is the one God worthy
of worship.
Glory be to Him. Far above is He
from having a son. Why? Because having a
son is a sign of weakness.
A child is taken because you want your
legacy to continue, because you are going to
be old and ill at a time and
you need him to look after you because
you need him to manage your affairs and
Allah is
far removed from any weakness or deficiency.
And then if Allah is a God and
his son is a God, then as Allah
mentions elsewhere in the Quran in various Surahs
of the Quran like Surah Al muminun and
Surah Al Anbiya that if there were multiple
Gods besides Allah azza wa Jal then those
Gods would always fight with one another. There
would be rivalries,
there would be battles between them, which God
is most supreme, whose will is enacted, is
it this God or that God, and so
it would cause a great deal of chaos
and corruption and evil. And so there is
only one God worthy of worship far removed
it's Allah Azawajal from having taken a son.
But rather everything in the heavens and the
earth belongs to Allah
and he is sufficient
as a protector.
In verse 172 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then
says
The Messiah would never disdain to be a
servant of Allah nor would the angels who
are close to him. He will gather before
him all those who disdain his worship and
are arrogant.
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala says that you claim
that Reza Alayhi Salaam is the God besides
Allah, he is the son of Allah Azza
wa Jal, but the reality is that Reza
Alayhi Salaam is one of servants of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and he doesn't disdain.
He is not too arrogant or haughty or
proud to be a servant of Allah Azzawajal.
Just as the Prophet of Allah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam took honor in the fact that
he was Allah's servant and he would say
don't elevate me the way that the Christians
elevated Isa alaihi salam above his station. Brothers
say that I am Allah's aab and his
Rasool. I am the servant of Allah and
his Messenger.
And so Isa Alaihi Salam likewise
is not so arrogant that he would disdain
that he is a servant to Allah
Rather the prophets of Allah take honour from
this, that they are submitting to Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala because he is the Lord and
creator of all and so they seek honour
in this as opposed to looking down upon
it.
Because the word slave or servant is something
which is distained upon when we speak about
it in our own context amongst ourselves. But
when it comes to Allah we should be
honored to be his slaves. We should be
honored to be the servants of Allah azza
wa Jal. So he is not too arrogant
to be called a servant of Allah azza
wa Jal nor are the angels who are
close to him.
They too are the servants of Allah the
slaves of Allah and
they too do not have that level of
arrogance or pride or haughtiness
that they don't want to be described as
such. And that shows to you
that these prophets of Allah, all of them,
the messengers of Allah and the angels of
Allah that are in the company of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala know their place and their
station. And that is why Allah will mention
as we will come to InshaAllah Ta'ala in
verses including in the next Surah Surah Al
Maida InshaAllah Ta'ala when Allah
will speak to those angels
and speak to those prophets and messengers and
those things that were worshipped besides Allah and
they didn't give authority for that, they didn't
want it to be worshipped. Allah will question
them and they will free themselves and absolve
themselves from those who worship them besides Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because they knew their place
and their position and that's why we mentioned
in the last couple of episodes that when
Isa AL ASSA AL ASSAAM descends to earth
towards the end of time,
he will come down as a messenger of
Allah and as a servant of Allah Azza
wa Jal and he will say that he
wasn't
a God besides Allah
and he will establish Tawhid and he will
call people to Allah azza wa Jal and
he will reply the Sharia of our Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. That is the reality of
Risa alaihi wasallam
and that is the reality of the angels
who are with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But
those who are many astanki for angry badati
you were stickbill,
But those people who are too arrogant and
they disdain worshipping Allah
alone, those are the people that Allah will
gather them
together to be judged. Allah
differentiates between the 2 people that will be
gathered before him. And he
says in verse 173:
As for those who believe and do good
works,
He will give due rewards and more of
His bounty. And to those who are disdainful
and arrogant, He will give an agonizing torment
and they will find no one besides Allah
to protect or help them. Allah Azzawajal said
in the previous verse that all of the
people will be gathered in front of Allah
and Yomul Qiyam on the day of judgement.
All of them will be resurrected and made
to stand before him. And all of them
will be held to account and they will
answer for their deeds and their beliefs and
their actions and their statements. Allah says as
the Ophiran does in the Quran distinguishing between
the only 2 groups that will exist on
that day. There is no third to these
2 groups. There are only 2 groups that
will exist on that day. The first, as
for those who believe,
they believed in Allah, they worshipped him alone,
they had full iman, they believed in the
prophets and messengers of Allah as Prophets and
Messengers of Allah, giving to them the stations
that are theirs but not elevating them
beyond that station, not going to extremes in
their religion, not speaking about Allah who is
a religion without knowledge, not ascribing lies to
Allah Azza wa Jal. Not only that but
then they did good deeds,
worked righteousness,
did as Allah commanded and stayed away from
his prohibitions
for them for you wafi him ujurahum.
Allah will give to them their full reward.
They will have the reward of all the
good that they did and Allah
multiplies the reward of the good doers. So
Allah
will honour them.
And He will give them an increase of
his bounty,
an increase in terms of everything they could
possibly wish for. As we know from the
Hadith of the Prophet
that the last person to enter Jannah will
have
the likes of everything in this world and
double, All in the other wording and 10
times it's like. And he is the least
of the people in terms of reward in
Jannah. So in terms of their residence in
Jannah, the clothing of Jannah, the food and
drink of Jannah, the resting
places of Jannah and all of the other
beauties of Jannah. These people will receive all
of this by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's grace.
Allah will increase them from his bounty and
the bounty of Allah is limitless
and knows no end. Allah
will favour them in this life and in
the next. But as for the second group,
as for those people who did disdain worshipping
Allah meaning they looked down upon it, they
considered it to be beneath them to worship
Allah
alone was and
they were arrogant and they had haughtiness in
them for your Adhibuham Adhaban Alima. They will
have the most painful agonizing of torments and
punishments.
They will find no protector besides Allah Azza
wa Jal. No one will help them. Those
gods that they worship besides Allah will forsake
them. Those prophets that they elevated above their
status, they will absolve themselves of them. Every
place that they turn and every direction that
they face, they will find no one to
help them and so they will remain in
the fire of * for all of eternity.
Allah Azza wa Jain says in verse 174,
Allah, Subhanahu
Wa
Ta'ala,
you. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala then says to
the people that everything that you need in
order to find guidance,
in order to find salvation,
Everything you need to know that which Allah
Azza wa Jal wants you to know in
order for you to be guided to him
and worship him alone Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in
order for you to find the straight path
to Allah
it has been given to you.
Clear proof has come to you. Clear proof
in the form of the Quran and the
revelation of Allah azza wa Jal clear proof
in the example of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
They have come to you and they are
clear for those people who seek that clarity,
for those people who are pure of heart,
are sincerely seeking guidance,
sincerely want to understand
what their purpose is upon this earth and
they are looking for that way to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. They feel that emptiness within
their hearts and they recognize it for what
it is that there is a lack of
spiritual fulfillment there, that there is something that
is missing from their lives even though they
may have the trappings and the luxuries of
the Dunya. They may have cars and wealth
and money and other things but within their
hearts they feel a loneliness.
Within their hearts they feel a wilderness.
Within their hearts they feel that there is
something missing and the only thing that can
fill that missing component of the heart is
the worship of Allah azza wa Jal and
belief in him alone Subhanahu wa ta'ala. So
they're searching and they're looking and they're sincere
in that guidance. Allah azza wa Jal will
give to them that guidance because the word
Burhan
is a clear proof, as clear
as the sun in the sky. For those
people who seek it, it is clear for
them if they are sincere. But for those
people who are not sincere, those people who
don't really want it or seek it, then
even if it comes to them with a
big stamp on it, they will not see
it. They will walk away as has happened
as we know throughout all of the nations.
That their prophets would come with signs and
miracles that they demanded themselves.
And when they would see those signs, they
would say, oh this is some type of
magical sorcery. Then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
split the moon for Quraysh because they demanded
that he split the moon and Allah
gave to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam that
miracle, what did they say? He is that
sorcery, he is bewitching us, there is something
going on here that doesn't make sense.
Even the clearest of signs to them is
not something which is enough. But the one
who is sincere in seeking guidance, they will
see the signs of the Quran and the
signs that Allah has given therein and the
signs of the truthfulness of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam and that is enough for them.
It is a clear proof that has come
to you from your Lord.
And Allah Azzawaj says that we have sent
you this clear light and that is the
Quran and everything it contains
from guidance
and from mercy
and from instruction from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Allah says in verse 175 which is the
penultimate verse of the Surah and the final
verse that we will take in today's episode
and we will leave then the final verse
inshallah ta'ala for our next episode Allah says
in verse 175.
Allah will admit those who believe in him
and hold fast to him, into his mercy
and favour. He will guide them towards him
on a straight path. And this is the
promise of Allah
that those people who believe in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and worship him alone,
do as Allah Azza wa Jal instructs and
hold fast to this meaning they turn to
Allah Azza wa Jal and hold onto the
rope of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala from the
Quran and from that which the Messenger of
Allah
brought their whole life revolves around Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and holding on to the guidance
that Allah gave. What does Allah say concerning
them?
He
will enter them into His Mercy
and His favour And that is in this
life that they would have the mercy of
Allah
and the blessings of Allah and
the favors, grace and bounty of Allah
and that is before
what Allah
will give to them of the rewards and
delights of Jannah and Yomul Qiyama and how
Allah will honour them on that day when
there will only be 2 groups those who
will have salvation
and those who will have damnation. Allah will
honour these groups.
Sirata Mustaqim Allah says at the end of
this verse, he will guide them towards him
on a straight path. And that is why
those people who have iman and those who
are sincere
in wanting to seek guidance, Allah guides them.
Those people who want guidance, Allah guides because
that is from the mercy of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala that if you are sincere in
wanting to find the truth, Allah will guide
you.
But if you are not sincere
and you don't really want that truth, then
you may not find that guidance. Allah
guides as he pleases and
he will guide these people
to the straight path. And with that Insha'Allah
we come to the end of today's episode.